Casting off becomes act of remembrance

PEOPLE usually wear paper poppies as an act of remembrance, but this year they will be able to buy wool ones.

A group of women from Bicester have begun knitting poppies to raise cash for the Poppy Appeal and they want more people to join them.

On Friday, June 20, people are being urged to bring red, black and green wool, and their knitting needles and join a coffee morning at John Paul ll Centre, The Causeway, Bicester, from 10am to noon.

Organiser Jackie Flynn, of Bicester, said her sister had spotted knitted poppies in another town, and she decided to take on the challenge.

She got herself a knitting pattern and encouraged friends to do the same.

It was a chance to commemorate her mum, Agnes Ralph, who sold poppies in Bicester for 25 years, and mark the centenary of the start of the First World War.

Mrs Flynn’s mother died in 2009, and was an avid supporter of the RBL.

She was 94.

Mrs Flynn, who has two children, three grandchildren and one great grandchild and lives in Orchard Way, Bicester, explained: “My mum was so involved in the Poppy Appeal that I took this up to do in her memory.”